County Wrongfully Concealing Our Public Records on Historic Preservation: December 12, 2022 SJC CRRB Meeting Agenda.

The facts are undisputed. 

St. Johns County wrongfully concealed records on historic preservation.  It asked its Cultural Resources Coordinator to lie to the Cultural Resources Review Board, and to conceal a feasibility study on preserving Hastings High School.  It wrongfully coerced the forced resignation of Trey Alexander Asner, Cultural Resources Coordinator, one of four Cultural Resources Coordinators forced out because County Administration said it feared "scaring off developers."

This corruption of our government by developers is indefensible and must be ended at once.

"Publicity is recommended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants, electric light the most efficient policeman."  Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis, "What Publicity Can Do," in Other Peoples' Money, chapter 5, page 92 (1932), first published in Harper's Weekly (December 20, 1913).

-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com>
To: r.e.olson1@comcast.net <r.e.olson1@comcast.net>; blair.knighting@kimley-horn.com <blair.knighting@kimley-horn.com>; christine-newman@comcast.net <christine-newman@comcast.net>; emurray@flagler.edu <emurray@flagler.edu>; janetjor@att.net <janetjor@att.net>; njonihakis@gmail.com <njonihakis@gmail.com>
Sent: Mon, Dec 12, 2022 10:21 am
Subject: County Wrongfully Concealing Our Public Records on Historic Preservation: December 12, 2022 SJC CRRB Meeting Agenda

Dear Chairman Olson and members of the St. Johns County Cultural Resources Review Board:

Faster than a speeding dump truck, the history, beauty, nature and wildlife of our beloved St. Johns County is being destroyed by overdevelopment.

You are the conscience of our St. Johns County community on historic preservation, and I salute you.

Thank you in advance for asking questions this afternoon, and for demanding answers at today's (December 12, 2022) CRRB meeting on:

1. the Growth Management Director's using material false statements to pressure St. Johns County Cultural Resources Coordinator Mr. Trey Asner to resign; 
   
2. the County's "massive resistance" to compliance with Florida whistleblower law; and 
   
3. the County's neglect and desuetude of protection of significant cultural resources, including Civil Rights, African-American and Hastings history.
   

I respectfully request that CRRB ask questions and demand answers today concerning:

A. Hastings High School Feasibility Study

On May 18, 2020 (938 Days ago/ 16 CRRB meetings ago), the final draft of a feasibility study concerning the preservation of Hastings High School was submitted to St. Johns County by the PQH Group, a Jacksonville based design company (likely grant funded). Since the submission of the report, the County Administrator and staff have not shared it with the CRRB, and asked staff to deny the existence of the report. Mr. Trey Asner was instructed by Environmental Manager Ms. Jan Brewer not to share the report with the CRRB after the board inquired about it at their April meeting. Mr. Asner was also directed to mislead the board if asked. When Ms. Brewer shared the report with Mr. Asner, he was told that the report was to be kept "In house."  Why?  At the October meeting of the CRRB, the board asked County staff if there were any updates regarding Hastings High School. Again, County staff failed to inform the board of the feasibility study that was done three (3) years ago. Why?

  
B.  Trey Asner Employee Evaluation

Mr. Asner's employee evaluation stated that Mr. Asner maintains "a high level of performance for the position as a whole" except concerning two issues. 

Issue No. 1: "[Mr. Asner has] been told on multiple occasions about staff interactions with the CRRB..." Never did anyone bring up to Mr. Asner any concern regarding my interactions with the CRRB. Please ask Environmental Manager Ms. Jan Brewer and Environmental Supervisor Mr. Ryan Mauch precisely what "interactions"  were of concern. 

Issue No. 2: "Trey has been told on multiple occasions.... [on] how to handle significant cultural resource designations. There seems to be a misunderstanding on this issue that needs to be addressed."  What did they mean by that?  What "misunderstanding?"  Mr. Asner was asked to stop the board from designating significant cultural resources and told that he would be the one to designate moving forward.  Mr. Mauch told Mr. Asner this before one CRRB meeting. Mr. Asner questioned Ms. Brewer about it the week before he was forced to resign: the instructions apparently violated the Land Development Code (LDC) and the requirements of the Certified Local Government Program. It also was exactly the reverse of what Ms. Brewer and Ms. Mauch told Mr. Asner when he first started working at the County (that it was up to the public board to designate and Mr. Asner should never do such designation).  When Mr. Asner expressed his concerns to her Ms. Brewer, Ms. Brewer stated that his position was "tentative at best." Why?

TEN BIG QUESTIONS

1. The CRRB should ask Environmental Manager Ms. Jan Brewer why Mr. Asner was reprimanded for sharing the Canright House draft letter for review when the CRRB had asked him for it and he was honoring their request. Ms. Brewer said that the letter was to be finalized that Monday, August 15, 2022 so therefore the draft needed to be reviewed by the CRRB  beforehand. 
   
2. The CRRB should ask why Mr. Asner was pressured to resign by Growth Management Director Michael Roberson.
3. The CRRB should ask who directed the forced resignation, based on what information from what sources, and why there was never a proper exit interview by HR.
4. The CRRB should ask why the County Attorney and County Administrator refused to meet with Mr. Asner in response to his reasoned and documented concerns about his illegally forced resignation in the face of threats by Mr. Michael Roberson.
5. There has been no response by County Administration to Mr. Asner's November 18, 2022 Inspector General complaint.  Why?
6. The CRRB should request the Board be provided with all pertinent records today on Mr. Asner, and the Canright House and Hastings High School coverups.
7. The CRRB should request that the County Attorney and County Administrator meet with Mr. Asner and work in good faith to resolve the issue, in compliance with reasonable expectations of probity under Florida whistleblower law.  Managers told Mr. Asner that his enforcing historic preservation laws would "scare off" developers.  This misconduct has implications for St. Johns County's status as a Certified Local Government, as well as for Historic Preservation Act Section 106 compliance.
8. Please videotape today's meeting and kindly request that our County staff take immediate steps to preserve all evidence and provide all documents to CRRB.  SJC Growth Management Director Michael Roberson told Mr. Asner that Mr. Asner was "not going to find anything" in County records on his forced resignation.   This statement is pregnant with the admission of refusal or failure to keep or maintain records, suggesting possible spoliation of evidence.
9. The CRRB should ask our County Commissioners to take a stand in support of employee rights. Please adopt a resolution at today's meeting expressing your concerns about the firing of three (3) Cultural Resources Coordinators in a row, suggesting the need for a County whistleblower policy similar to that adopted by our Anastasia Mosquito Control District circa 2008.
10. Retaliation against Mr. Asner for doing his job "too well" is contrary to the genius of a free people.  It is illegal and unseemly.  In Lincoln's words, that retaliation is "Idolatry that practices human sacrifice." Please request that all persons with knowledge on these issues come forward and be heard in public at a hearing to be televised live on GTV.  It's our money and our County.  It's time for the Rule of Law to be enforced in St. Johns County, which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once called "the most lawless" place in America.

Please feel free to call upon me in support of your investigation and supervision of St. Johns County's Cultural Resources.

Thank you and Happy Holidays.

With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin

Box 3084

www.staugustgreen.com
www.edslavin.com
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com

(904) 377-4998